The Tale of Mummy and Me
by JKO73
Summary: A man sits holding a wide awake baby. Listen in to some father-son bonding, focussing a lot on the most important woman in both their lives. Then find out what the woman in the adjacent room thinks about what she has heard.
1. Chapter 1

Moonlight shone through the window, illuminating the man's naked torso as he slowly swayed from side to side. His quiet humming, occasionally interspersed with soft 'shhh' sounds, filled the room and, as he turned and made his way to the rocking chair, he quickly snagged a blanket from the dresser, draping it round the small bundle cradled in his arms. He sank into the chair, propping his feet on the stool in front and rubbed one hand over his face in an attempt to wipe away the total exhaustion that swept over him.

Two little hands suddenly appeared from the pale blue blanket lying on his lap and one latched strongly onto the man's thumb. A set of blue eyes locked with a pair of brown, and the skin surrounding the blue ones crinkled as the man's face broke into an adoring smile.

"Hey little man. Not sleepy huh?" The baby smiled in response to his Daddy's question and accompanying raised eyebrow. The man nodded, "Hmmm, I can tell. I'm a Detective you see. I detect things. You can't be hungry yet and you don't need to be changed. Maybe you just need some company? Perhaps a chat? That I can do. Seriously, I can talk. A lot. Just ask Mummy. So how about it baby boy, a little father-son bonding?"

The man ran a hand through his scruffy blonde hair and settled back into the chair. He began to lightly stroke his son's soft head as he whispered "we'll have to keep the noise down though so we don't wake Mummy. Let her get some beauty sleep. Not that she needs it, I mean, you've seen her, right? She's all kinds of beautiful, inside and out. How about I tell you some stuff about her? About her and me? Yeah?"

He shook his head ever so slightly and tilted it to the side as his lips quirked upwards and a somewhat quizzical expression appeared on his face. "Where to start little man, it's a long story." He paused, smiled, took a deep breath and began. "Well, we met at a gym…" He spoke of a beautiful, feisty stranger who had intrigued him from the moment he saw her and the unexpected relief he had felt upon discovering she was in fact a federal agent and not the part time, slightly hinky, girlfriend of a dead marine.

"She pretty much hooked me from the start buddy. Couldn't get her out of my head. Not sure she was so impressed with me though. She even made a snippy comment about me being 'the best they could do' on our first day working together. I forgave her immediately though and should have known I was in trouble from there on in."

He shrugged his shoulders at his son. "Why wouldn't you for fall her eh? Don't get me wrong. She's not perfect. Her driving? Erratic at best. Her cooking? You have that experience to come buster, let me warn you in advance. Her taste in TV shows or music? Not so great. She has a junk food jones she tries to deny and a jealous streak she refuses to acknowledge. Don't get me started on the year she forgot my birthday. And I'm still working on her sense of humour. So no, not perfect. But perfect for me."

Nodding enthusiastically, the man proudly boasted, "She can do amazing things that I know she's going to share with you. If you want to hot wire a plane, she's the girl to show you how or need to pick a lock, then there's no one better." He furrowed his brow as he thought out loud. "Not sure, as a cop, how I feel about my son learning those things but hey, as long as you fight for the side of justice I guess that's ok!"

He carried on, "Did you know she can track a bear? Take down a man twice her size? Lip read? Get hit by a car but get up and keep running? And man, when she starts speaking another language? Wow, that really does it for me." The man coughed a little awkwardly. "Ok…probably not the direction this conversation needs to go in. You don't want to hear those sorts of thoughts about your Mum, right?" He grinned. "So I'll skip over how great she looks in a bikini. And you already know how incredible she smells. She smells like sunshine and gunpowder. Actually, not so much gunpowder at the moment, not since you arrived a couple of months ago. Definitely still sunshine though." He paused and thought for a moment. "More like sunshine and…home. Yes, sunshine and home" he said conclusively.

"She's brave too. Just like wonder woman. She's not 100% fearless like she used to be, she's more careful. You've changed that about her. For the better. She'd never want to leave you. Or me I hope." He winked at the little boy but his face grew more serious as he shared his feelings. "My fear levels increased as my feelings towards her grew. The thought that something could happen to her, that I wouldn't be able to protect her. It killed me. Still does. A long time ago there were some bad guys from Russia who took her from me. I'd never felt fear like it and that's when I knew. I knew I valued her life more than my own. If I could have switched places with her I would have done so in a heartbeat. Instead, I held her hands and stayed with her for the moment of truth. And the relief, the sheer, total and utter relief; that she was safe, of course, but also that our time together wasn't done before it had even started."

The man inhaled shakily and rubbed a finger over the little hand clutching his thumb. "And now I feel more fear than ever. Because I have two people whose lives I value above my own." The bright blue eyes misted over briefly. "I promise that I will always look after you and your Mummy. I will protect you both and keep you from harm. Always."

A wry chuckle reverberated in the man's throat as he attempted to lighten the one sided conversation. "And Mummy is the most loyal person I know. Once she loves you, that's it, you're hers and she'd die for you. So God help any kid who tries to pick on you in the playground. What am I saying? You're her flesh and blood, there's no way you won't be able to defend yourself!"

"Don't you think she has THE most beautiful smile? Sure, it's a bit more of a tired smile than normal but I think it's the happiest smile I've ever seen on anyone. She smiles way more now than when we first met. Laughs more too. It wasn't always that way. She used to be very tightly wound. I made it my personal mission to make her smile and laugh every day."

He began to recall past events, "We spent one Christmas on the USS Van Buren instead of enjoying a hot tub at Lake Tahoe. I wasn't overly bothered though because all that mattered to me was that we were together for Christmas. And there was the time we visited Romania. Not so romantic if I'm truthful. Apart from the fact that I only really went because your Mum was going. Where she goes, I go. That's how we roll, you see. Dubai wasn't much fun either. Super hot. Plus lots of bad guys with guns. I didn't even get to sit with her on the plane journey home.

Continuing to stroke the baby's fingers he reminisced about all the times they had imitated other people. "Mummy and I are going to be so great at playing make believe with you. We have practiced a lot at dressing up and pretending to be other people. She's often Fern, I'm sometimes a janitor. I get a tool belt most times, so hey, it's not all bad. We were Tracey and Jason when we met but my favourite time was as Justin and Melissa. I got to live with Mummy for a while – sleep next to her, make her pancakes for breakfast, plus she kissed me. Yup, she totally did. She said it was just to fool the other people but I never believed that. Not for a second."

He hesitated briefly. "Hmmm, who else have we pretended to be? We've done it so many times. We were Danny Collins and Kiki Banks. That was funny - I said she needed lots of cosmetic surgery. Riiiight. Like I'd have changed anything about her. I got pepper sprayed. That was less funny. And we were briefly Jennifer and Edward in a pole dancing club." He smirked. "I'm going to wait a few years before I tell you more about that kind of dancing! There was the time I pretended she was Ines, a Brazilian model and I was her English manager. I had the most awful accent, a cross between Jack Sparrow and Mary Poppins. Really."

"Mummy play acted as a marine Major once. Wow, she was a major hottie in that costume. Ok, ok, moving on… We were colleagues from the FRA another time. I was Matthew, a neurotic germophobe. Horrible ugly jackets we had to wear for that but I proved I can pull off glasses… And there was the time I had to be a surfer. I know, how great was that? I got to spend the day at the beach, talking to one of the all time surfing greats, plus slap Mummy's bottom. Sorta makes up for all the gigs I had to be a hobo. Hmmm, I don't smell so great during those games! Mummy pretended to be a fortune teller once. Esme I think her name was. I hinted that she looked hot. Then ruined it by saying she was like my sister. Honestly, I was such an idiot."

The man revealed more memories, telling anecdotes about the times he'd spent with his wife, some were short tales; about a box, a motorbike, a walking workstation, a memoir, an emergency kit containing sun cream and a cosy slanket, yoga bunnies, the Viennese waltz and a doppelganger aquarium. Others were longer, of greater significance; staggering from his hospital bed to save her from Vakar, being the only person she trusted to keep her mother safe, risking their partnership to catch Clarence Fisk.

He recollected colleagues, friends and foe who had passed through their adventures. The appearance of certain characters, like Astrid, Peter Clairmont, Jenny Radler and Lance Talbot, had exposed a little more of their true selves and their lives before NCIS. The arrival of some, including Monica, Nicole, Stanley King, Lieutenant Abernathy and Agent Sabatino had highlighted their changing feelings towards each other. He shared stories of Mike Renko, Lauren Hunter and Michael Saleh, brave and missed colleagues, and of ruthless criminals such as Lasik, Sidarov and Janvier. Ray was mentioned as the friend to call him on his feelings for the beautiful brunette. And of course, there was their unique, make shift family. The military man, the geek, the lone wolf, the intelligent pixie and the indomitable matriarch. People who always had their backs. There were so many individuals, he reflected, who had influenced the course of their partnership, no, relationship. He wondered briefly how their journey would have been different, if at all, without them all playing a part. And then his focus returned to his son.

"We had such a lot of fun together. I flirted A LOT with her. Actually we flirted with each other. Your mother has always known exactly how to push my buttons. Despite our differences we became friends. Before I knew it, she was my best friend. She was the person I wanted to spend my time with and no other girl came close. There was no other woman I wanted to visit Vegas with or teach to surf. And I'd certainly never have watched America's Next Top Model for anyone else."

He sighed. "Only her. You know mate, I think it may always have been that way, even back when she insisted she was just one of the guys. Even before I realised she was end game for me. Geeze, I even kept calling her my girl. Now she's OUR girl." He smiled as he corrected the statement. "We'll share her." The man laughed quietly to himself. "No wonder everyone said we had a thing. It must have been so obvious."

"Once I realised she was 'the one'" he used his fingers to emphasise the words, "I went on a charm offensive. When you're older, son, I'll give you some tips on how to charm the ladies." His eyes twinkled at the young child. "Anyway…took a while to make her mine, baby. A whole lot longer than I thought it would. Won her over in the end though. Luckily for you!" The man nodded heartily at the smiling baby and waved his hand up and down his body. "What's that? Yes, you're right of course. Who wouldn't want a piece of this?! Seriously though bud, it was hard work. I pushed, she avoided. I pulled, she resisted. I talked, she stayed silent. We had dreadful communication skills. I was unable to say what I actually meant so in the end I showed her. I kissed her. I know, props to me, right?!"

He exhaled sharply. "Turns out it wasn't the best timing ever. Complicated things for a while. But we got there eventually. Because of her. She rescued me you know. Sure, she'd saved my backside more than once over the years. She was always ready, willing and oh so able to prevent any bad guy hurting me. But the most important time was when she brought me back to life after, well, after some not so nice men insisted on carrying out some unplanned dental work on me. I was drowning in despair and she grabbed my hand and dragged me to shore, never wavered in being there for me, even when I tried to push her away. She insisted on loving me you see, reminded me of who I was, who we were together. She was the only thing that got me through."

The man stopped talking and leant his head back against the chair looking out the window at the slowly rising sun. After several moments he returned his gaze to the little boy on his lap and with total sincerity said quietly, "I wouldn't change a thing son. We are what we are because of it all. And she was worth the wait."

He gently kissed his fingers and pressed them to the baby's nose. "So there you have it, that's the tale of Mummy and me. It's been an adventure so far, crammed with mysteries and bad guys and action and friends and laughter. But essentially, well, it's love story."

The man looked down at his drowsy son and grinned. "Ah, my incessant rambling often sends Mummy to sleep too." He scooped up the baby and pulled him to his chest, rubbing his cheek against the soft baby hair and inhaling his intoxicating baby smell.

Even in his weary state he was reluctant to put the baby in his crib. This baby embodied just how much he had achieved, so much more than he had ever expected to. This baby proved he had overcome his difficult childhood, excelled in his chosen career, conquered demons old and new, fallen in love and persuaded an amazing woman to be his wife. This baby symbolised what his life was now about – love, commitment, responsibility, stability and happiness. This baby was quite simply his past, his present and his future.

"If Mummy and I are a love story, then you, precious baby, are our happily ever after" he whispered to the blue bundle.


	2. Chapter 2

A woman sat in the adjacent bedroom, staring at the baby monitor and wiping away the tears which had fallen as she listened to her husband talk to their son. She honestly didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "_Maybe it's still baby hormones?_" she wondered.

His words had touched her deeply. Listening to her husband tell their baby how they had fallen in love had stirred powerful memories. Some were light hearted. She smiled at his fondness for fish tacos and cheesy 80s movies, recalled comparing him to Malibu Ken, and snorted out loud at the thought of making him sing after discovering he was in a band. She grinned to herself in the darkness as she remembered calling him Paulo after he had confessed about the 'dancing; exotic in nature' he'd done to fund his way through college.

Her smile faded away as she recollected other, unhappier occasions. Her mouth pulled into a grimace as she reflected on the irrational levels of jealousy his connection with any other woman evoked in her. Her cheeks flushed pink as she dwelt briefly on how she had behaved towards Ava, the Mexican Police Chief. Distrusting the woman had been solely due to her feelings of possessiveness towards her Partner. She groaned with embarrassment as she remembered the time she had actually ripped his number from Star, a witness in a case they were investigating. She couldn't even bring herself to think about Ray's ex-wife or the delusional hostess from Nkosi without the green eyed monster starting to rear its ugly head.

She would never forget seeing him standing at the hospital entrance, blood seeping from reopened bullet holes, his face wracked with pain as he raced to save her. She thought about the anxiety she always experienced at seeing him in danger and the instinctive urge she felt to keep him safe, whether that meant shooting a man wielding a machete or running towards a red sedan fully aware that it would shortly explode. She would do anything to protect him, to preserve his well-being, to keep him from danger.

'_But you didn't, did you? You didn't always shield him from harm.'_ Her subconscious nudged her towards the worst memory of all. She shuddered as she remembered finding him strapped to a chair, bruised and battered, his mouth swollen and bleeding. Her eyes began to fill with tears as anguish and shame rose within her, as if it had been yesterday that he had asked her to cut him loose and she had told him he had to stay there a while longer. She contemplated the look she had seen on his face as he'd stared at her with such vulnerability and trust and even now, after so much time had passed, she knew she would always feel guilty for failing to immediately ease his suffering and distress. She questioned again, as she had done hundreds of times over the last two years, how he had ever forgiven her for leaving him there, alone in his hour of need. She wondered if she would have forgiven him had the situation been reversed. She smiled ruefully as she speculated whether he would have followed orders and left her there or if he would have simply scooped her up to safety, suspecting that he would have refused to leave her in that state.

Gratitude flooded over her when she thought about how he had not only forgiven her, but had continued to love her and want her. It summed him up really she concluded. Her husband had a heart as big as a house. He was brave, loyal, loving, determined, compassionate and kind. She chuckled quietly, he had needed to be to all those things and more to break through her defensives and win her heart. It had also helped of course that he was stunningly handsome with eyes the colour of the ocean and a smile that could stop traffic.

The woman experienced an overpowering urge to see her husband. Quickly she debated whether to wait for him to return to their bed or to follow him to their son's room. When he failed to reappear within the next five minutes she decided not to wait any longer. She needed the reassurance of seeing him, of touching him, to confirm that life really was as wonderful as it seemed. She wanted to show him how much she appreciated him, not just for everything he had done to build their relationship but how much she valued his continued devotion to her, and now their son.

She moved soundlessly along the short, narrow corridor and stood, motionless, in the nursery doorway, in awe of the sight that greeted her. The man she adored was in front of the window, watching the sunrise, cradling the life they had created together, moving slowly to a tune he could hear in his mind.

She waited a while, watching the two people she loved most in the world, not sure if she should interrupt the intimate dance she was witnessing. She hadn't wanted to startle her husband but her emotions overwhelmed her and she walked towards him, gently placing her hand in the small of his back and murmuring "Hey handsome, whatcha doing?"

The man immediately wrapped his right arm around her, pulling her tight against him, whilst continuing to hold their son securely with the other. "Just hanging with my boy. Talking, dancing, more talking, more dancing. Told him all about you and me. He thought it was a fascinating tale but couldn't understand why it took you so long to fall for my obvious charms."

The woman smirked "what makes you think you're the handsome one I was talking to?!"

"Touché" the man beamed back at her.

"Seriously though, enough with the chatter. Your son is fast asleep and you have two hours before you need get up for work. Come back to bed."

He half heartedly waggled his eyebrows suggestively. She raised hers in response. "Really?"

"No, not really" he groaned quietly, "I'd like to say that there's a better way to spend the next two hours in bed with you but the desire to sleep is winning hands down." A cheeky grin appeared on his tired face. "But, for future reference, making love to you is ALWAYS a good use of my time."

His wife rolled her eyes before cutting off any further discussion on the matter by brushing her lips briefly against his. She pulled her head back far enough to look into his eyes, and they stood, just staring at each other for a moment. Their eyes and smiles expressed a deep love, the hopes and dreams they shared for their future and the utter contentment they had found in each other.

Slowly, she turned away from his gaze and rested her head on his shoulder. He sighed happily and pulled her snugly to him as she wrapped her arms around his waist, embracing him and their son. He once again began to sway gently to a noiseless song and inwardly he shook his head, as if to convince himself that this moment, this incredible moment when life seemed perfect, was real. He continued to lead his family in their sleepy dance, silently offering thanks for the woman at his side, the family she had given him and the life they would live together.

"_Best. Dance. Ever._"


End file.
